Plagiarism, ethics, and honor codes were the topic of discussion on Wednesday evening, as students, faculty, and administrators crowded into the Faculty Dining Room for the Ex-college's 12th annual Opening Up the Classroom.
This year's event was entitled "Ethics, Education and Enron: Integrity at Tufts and Beyond." Opening Up the Classroom is held annually to give students an opportunity to have real, productive conversations with faculty outside of the classroom. Ex-College director Robyn Gittleman said the discussions are intended to find ways to make a difference in the Tufts community.
"Each year we try to find issues that are both important and interesting to the faculty and students," she said. "We want it to be fun, but also thought-provoking and something that can bring about realistic change."
At the evening's inception, panels - highlighting press coverage of ethical issues in higher education - were placed throughout the hall to highlight discussions to come. One panel discussed a college that used photo design software to falsely superimpose a "black face" onto their admissions brochure. Another told of a Mount Holyoke professor who was suspended for lies about his background, just after winning the Pulitzer Prize.
Ex-College board member and biology professor Ross Feldberg opened the dinner portion of the evening by saying the event was an opportunity to "bring various members of the Tufts community together to discuss topics." Although there was an agenda for the evening, the idea was to incite discussion, he said.
Students and faculty began by discussing the subtle differences between theft from a person and theft from a corporation, peer-to-peer file transfer programs, and recent cheating controversies in Salt Lake City.
For the rest of the dinner, groups continued to discuss the implications of plagiarism and whether Tufts students are aware of what constitutes plagiarism. Topics debated included the rationalization of unethical behavior and whether Tufts should accept money from donors with tainted pasts.
Much of the discussion turned toward the possible implementation of a University-wide honor code. Ex-College board member Edith Balbach said her discussion group felt that "an honor code would need to come from the community, from students" to be effective.
Economics professor and Ex-college board member Dan Richards said his group felt an honor code would be controversial, since it might require witnesses to be as culpable as perpetrators. He felt that the University should instead focus on community building.
Feldberg's group was concerned about the implications of maintaining a code-based community - a necessity it felt would surely arise if Tufts were to implement an honor code. "For institutions that have an honor code, they attract students who are interested in honor codes."
Still others felt the relationship between student and professor should be strong enough to prevent plagiarism, with some suggesting that professors should begin classes by telling their students the intrinsic value of what they will be learning - in effect, telling them what they stood to lose by cheating.
One group determined that, "even without grades, people would still cheat."
Proposed ideas included a weekend seminar each Tufts student would have to complete before graduation, focusing on case studies and discussions of ethics.
University Provost Sol Gittleman, introduced as "Robyn's husband" by Feldberg, closed the evening, saying that though it was worth exploration, Tufts is not similar to smaller schools and military academies that have found honor codes successful.
"This is not the kind of place where kids blow up each other's experiments," he said. Gittleman related a one-line honor code that had been brought up by one of his group members: "Do not take unfair advantage of anyone else," he said.
He said that though not a psychologist, he thought it was human nature to rationalize cheating unless one fears getting caught. Gittleman also put into perspective the debate over accepting money from donors with questionable records. "The problem with tainted money is there 'taint enough of it," he said, quoting former Tufts president Jean Mayer. According to Gittleman, money from foundations begun by the likes of the Rockefellers and the Carnegies - found throughout higher education - cannot truly be considered "untainted."
In his concluding statement, Gittleman focused on an image of Disney's Donald Duck. Every time the cartoon character made a decision, a devil and an angel would pop up on his shoulders for an impromptu ethical debate. Gittleman told students that these sorts of dilemmas would never become unfamiliar.
"Those two little icons are going to be with you for the rest of your life," he said.
Previous Opening Up the Classroom events have focused on what the community would expect from a new president, revamping the freshman experience, and questioning whether community service should be a curriculum requirement at Tufts.
